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   From: robduncan@gbronline.com   
      
   So do what?...  Blame all Christians for what the Germans did?  Thats the   
   worst form of bigotry.   
      
      
   Rob   
      
   "Dr. Jai Maharaj"  wrote in message   
   news:Xtian-26i2f.20040301@news.mantra.com...   
   > CHURCH SLEPT WITH HITLER IN BLOOD OF 6 MILLION JEWS   
   >   
   > By Michael Hakeem, Ph.D.   
   >   
   > Going by what the Christian clergy teach about the   
   > virtues that the faith inspires, Nazism, Hitler's wars,   
   > and the Holocaust should not have been possible. Not only   
   > did they occur, but with insignificant and wavering   
   > exceptions, neither theologians, clergy, nor ordinary   
   > Christians as individuals, nor churches as corporate   
   > bodies, objected. In fact they overwhelmingly supported   
   > them. Look at three of the most distinguished German   
   > Protestant theologians -- Gerhard Kittel, Paul Althaus,   
   > and Emanual Hirsch. These men were highly respected,   
   > extremely erudite, uncommonly productive, and   
   > internationally known professors, each at a different,   
   > first-class university.   
   >   
   > Professor Robert P. Erickson did an unusually   
   > comprehensive investigation of the three theologians'   
   > writings, utterances, and activities as they pertain to   
   > Nazism and the Jewish Question. He reports his findings   
   > in a book, Theologians Under Hitler. If anyone should   
   > know whether submission or opposition is demanded of the   
   > followers of the living Christ when confronted with a   
   > regime as totally reprehensible as that of the Nazis,   
   > surely it would be these theologians.   
   >   
   > What conclusions did Erickson reach as to the stance of   
   > the three men who would be expected to exemplify the   
   > ultimate in the embodiment of those noble values that   
   > millions of Sunday school children are taught attach to   
   > Christian folk? They are grim:   
   >   
   > "They each supported Hitler openly, enthusiastically, and   
   > with little restraint." In fact, they deemed it the   
   > Christian thing to do. They "saw themselves and were seen   
   > by others as genuine Christians acting upon genuine   
   > Christian impulses." Furthermore, all three tended "to   
   > see God's hand in the elevation of Hitler to power."   
   > Hirsch was a member of the Nazi party and of the SS. The   
   > Nazi state, he said, should be accepted and supported by   
   > Christians as a tool of God's grace. To Althaus, Hitler's   
   > coming to power was "a gift and miracle of God." He   
   > taught that "we Christians know ourselves bound by God's   
   > will to·the promotion of National Socialism."   
   >   
   > Kittel and a group of twelve leading theologians and   
   > pastors issued a proclamation that Nazism is "a call of   
   > God," and they thanked God for Adolf Hitler. Kittel was a   
   > party member and he himself proudly claimed that he was a   
   > good Nazi. He explains that he did not join it as a   
   > result of pressure or for pragmatic reasons but because   
   > he concluded that the Nazi phenomenon was "a v lkisch   
   > renewal movement on a Christian, moral foundation." He   
   > accorded Christianity a place of honor in Nazi Germany   
   > precisely because of its position on the Jewish Question.   
   > He said he was speaking for other theologians too when he   
   > maintained that agreement with state and Fuhrer was   
   > obedience to the law of God.   
   >   
   > These theologians were drenched in anti-Semitism. For   
   > example, throughout the whole of the Nazi era, Kittel's   
   > writings, Erickson has determined, "correspond to and   
   > support Nazi politics, including all of the policies on   
   > the Jewish question, with the possible exception of   
   > genocide," but one is led to wonder. He never spoke out   
   > against extermination. Indeed, he actually propounded   
   > what was purported to be a theologically solid Christian   
   > justification for the oppression of the Jews, whom he   
   > referred to as "refuse."   
   >   
   > Kittel discusses what he deems to be the only four   
   > options for dealing with the Jews. He rejects   
   > extermination but not at all because of humanitarian   
   > motivation but because he thinks it does not work. In   
   > fact, he warns against "so-called" Christian sensitivity,   
   > saying the faith is not weak sentimentality but a strong,   
   > principled anti-Jewish force. His solution is to strip   
   > Jews of German citizenship and make them "guests." He   
   > would deprive them of civil rights, debar them from the   
   > professions, keep them from marrying Germans, prohibit   
   > them from teaching Germans, and impose on them other   
   > disadvantages and hardships.   
   >   
   > All this still gives only a meager sample of the   
   > abominations these men spawned. Erickson concludes that   
   > they "were not isolated or eccentric individuals .f.f.f.   
   > Their assumptions, their concerns, and their conclusions   
   > represent a position that must have been common to many   
   > professors, theologians and pastors in Germany. They were   
   > not extremists." The largest middle group in the   
   > churches, Erickson observes, "probably held views   
   > resembling those of Kittel, Althaus, and Hirsch."   
   >   
   > -From one fact alone, noted by Richard Grunberger, and   
   > confirmed by numerous historians, it is possible to learn   
   > that the Protestant churches remained shrouded in silence   
   > while the Nazis were massively tormenting, torturing,   
   > imprisoning, deporting, enslaving and killing the Jews:   
   > "The Confessional Church of Prussia was the only   
   > Christian body in the twelve-year history of the Third   
   > Reich to protest publicly against the unspeakable   
   > outrages inflicted upon the Jews."   
   >   
   > The other extreme has been noted by the historians   
   > Rubenstein and Roth: "Of all the churches of Europe   
   > during the period 1933-45, none was as silent or as   
   > indifferent to the known fate of the Jews, when it did   
   > not actively support National Socialist antisemitic   
   > politics, as was the German Lutheran Church."   
   >   
   > One hears much about the "Church Struggle" in Nazi   
   > Germany. The very term suggests, and some unscrupulous,   
   > pious pretenders seek to persuade the world, that there   
   > was a mighty battle by the churches fought against the   
   > evils of Nazism and that some courageous Protestant   
   > leaders opposed the Hitlerian plan to annihilate all the   
   > Jews. That was not the Church Struggle. It was rather, as   
   > one writer put it, "the struggle of the church against   
   > the church for the church." The apologists misleadingly   
   > portray a handful of "heroes" and "martyrs" of this   
   > struggle as fearless fighters against the regime. In   
   > fact, the Church Struggle was fought out within the   
   > churches and was not in opposition to the Nazi regime as   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)